Singapore's Great Haze exposes limits of e-commerce #sghaze

Singapore’s Great Haze exposes limits of e-commerce June 21, 2013 by Terence LEE As Indonesia’s forest fires ravage Singapore, bringing the Pollutant Standards Index to a recording-breaking 401 at one point, residents have been scrambling to obtain the elusive N95-certified face mask. Promising to keep out dust particles from the lungs, the hot item was sold out at most pharmacies in Singapore. With such an unexpected and massive surge in demand, many have turned to e-commerce sites to order the masks. They would be disappointed. These are indeed exceptional circumstances, not dissimilar to the 0.01 percent of downtime faced by web servers. Here’s why: 1) Anti-pollutant face masks, traditionally niche items, have suddenly become mass market A month ago, no one — save for the most paranoid ones — would have given a thought about buying these items off-the-shelf. Once the pr...